The views of a long time baseball fan who is totally blind, will cover a wide range of subjects, including my upcoming 30 ballpark, 30 day tour.

October 2014

For those who are following the simulation league results posted on Youtube and shared via Twitter and for those who occasionally come across this blog, below is listed the complete list of the players used for this particular league simulation via http://www.whatifsports.com. Note a couple things, first the salary is a WIS value for how the player should perform and how frequently the player can play with out a major fatigue hit and note the position listed may not be the position or manner in which the player is used. Some pitchers listed as starter will be used in relief because of lower innings counts for the given season and some position players are playing in other areas that are not a defensive penalty on the defensive spectrum, such as a shortstop playing other positions accept catcher, a Houston 2b that is playing 3b, Etc. Now, the complete list of rosters.
Note too that only four teams, the Mariners, Brewers, Rangers, and Red sox are using a primary DH at the actual DH slot, most teams are using another 1b or a weaker outfielder at that position.

WhatIfSports is a trademark of WhatIfSports.com, Inc. SimLeague, SimMatchup and iSimNow are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts, Inc. Used under license. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

For anyone who comes across this blog, I officially started simulation league 3 on October 17. The Youtube links don’t post properly when I am linking them off the blog, so you can follow the results which are recorded on youtube by following me on twitter @baseballgeek73. The recaps of all simulations are posted to youtube and shared via twitter. Overviews of the season results will be published here in December.

Soon a most memorable postseason will come to an end. By that time, the third simulated league will be underway using the facilities of www.whatifsports.com.

Sim league 1.0 ran from May through July in 2013 using the 1998-2012 alignment. Any player who had at least 50 at bats or 25 innings pitched was a candidate to be on a roster. All players in the WIS database are assigned a salary value based on numerous factors including innings thrown or plate appearances. Teams played an uncapped league, so those long time franchises like the Yankees and Red Sox had among the highest payroll totals and were most successful. Any player who played from 1901-2013 could be used, but only on one team, meaning a player like Moises Alou could play for the Cubs, or Astros, or marlins, or nationals being a former Expo. One of the better if not the best season was used in picking each player and assigning that player to the appropriate roster. Only players who played the entire season with a given team were used, players who split time between two teams were not. The Yankees, Indians, Athletics, Braves, Cubs and Giants won division crowns, the Red Sox took the AL wild card, the Reds and Nationals tied for the NL wild card, Cincinnati winning the playoff. The Nationals franchise was the only expansion era team to even have this much success beyond the regular season.

League 2.0 ran from December 2013 to February 2014 and several changes took place. IN league 1, only AL teams used a DH, now all teams did because the alignment was significantly different. The alignment, which still uses a 1998-2012 style, the latest offfered by WIS at this time, was based on geography. The AL West was won by the White Sox, edging the Twins, Cubs, and Brewers, Milwaukee finishing way out in last place. The AL Central was home to the Cardinals, Rockies, Royals, Mariners, and Diamondbacks, St. Louis winning the division rather easily. The very competetive AL East was won by the Indians, who held off the wild card Reds, plus the very competetive Pirates and Blue Jays, while the Tigers came in last 14 games back.

The NL West was the California division taken by the Dodgers, while the Giants were competetive, the Athletics .500 and the Padres did OK, the Angels finished dead last. The NL East was a close division won by the Braves who caught the Astros, the Rangers, Marlins, and Rays never were a factor. The six team NL Central was a wonderful race with the yankees edging the wild card Red Sox, while the Orioles fell short despite a long run in first. All others, the Phillies, Nationals, and Mets were competetive.

IN this league, the cap was moved down to 135 million and players who were on a team for a portion of the season could now be used. The player could only play for one team and use his statistical performance based on the given team, so 2000 Gabe White could only use his Rockies stats to qualify for the Rockies roster as an example.

League 3 which starts this month and which will end near Christmas is very similar to league 2.0, with a couple of minor changes. The cap was reduced again to 130 million and the alignment changes to place the original 16 teams on the NL side of the alignment, the 14 expansion era teams on the AL side. The NL divvisions are set so that the five original AL franchises which have not relocated to a new city are grouped together, the Red Sox, Yankees, White Sox, Indians and Tigers are in the NL East. Five NL franchises of the original eight have not relocated as well, those teams are the Cubs, Cardinals, Reds, Pirates and Phillies, they are all together in the NL West. The NL Central with six slots to fill is home to the teams who have relocated from their original home citties, the Athletics, Giants, Dodgers, Twins, Braves, and Orioles.

ON the AL side, the teams that came into MLB since 1993 are in the AL West, so the Rockies, marlins, Rays and Diamondbacks are in a division together. The AL Central is home to the two 1977 expansion teams, the Mariners and Blue Jays, plus the three franchises from previous expansion that have relocated, the Brewers, Rangers, and Nationals. The remaining five expansion teams are together in the AL East, the Mets, Astros, Royals, Padres, and Angels.

The first two leagues used a balanced 1998-2000 style of scheduling. League 3.0 will use a 2001-2012 style of scheduling with a focus on more divisional play.

Teams in league 3 are also focused more on defensive play where possible. More of the rosters were built with a players defensive range and fielding grades playing a larger roll in deciding upon how the roster should be constructed.

Updates on how the league is playing out will be posted later this fall and winter.

Remember back in 1997 when a proposal was leaked that would have brought about radicle realignment to baseball? A new commissioner is taking office next winter and one can’t help but wonder, would he try new approaches? The Union has already voiced in the past that it would like to see some changes done to the schedule.

Previously, I have written about how baseball under the current alignment could modify the schedule so that the total number of games played in the division drops from the current 76 to 52, going from 19 to 13 games per divisional opposition, while increasing the number of intraleague games outside the division from 66 to 90, thus changing the number of games played from 6-7 per team to 9 games against said opposition. Interleague games would remain at 20 per team and scheduled much like we see today. Another idea I wrote about later which would not change alignment, would create a schedule that allowed for 56 divisional games, 14 against each team, plus 60 intraleague games or 6 games per same league opponent outside the division, plus 46 interleague games, 3 games against 14 teams and 4 against the 15th in the opposite league. Tonight’s idea, major geographic realignment that removes the AL and NL as we know it.

When 1997’s crazy idea was first reported in the papers, it looked like this. One league would have 16 teams split into a pair of divisions, the Rockies, mariners, Diamondbacks, and the five teams in California would make up one division, while the other would be the teams in the Central time zone, Minnesota, Milwaukee, plus the teams from Chicago, Missouri, and Texas. The two divisions back east would have seven teams each divided along similar lines. My proposal here would echo that to a point, while removing the AL and NL designations. All teams would face one another under the same rules and after years of hating on the DH, I have come to accept that the game is more entertaining when the pitcher is not batting and a guaranteed out 85% of the time, thus allowing the DH for all teams. Pitchers would still bat if a team had to sub a player acting as DH into a game as a defensive player or pitcher should such a need present itself. All teams would play 14 divisional games against each team within its own division. The number of games for teams played outside the division would be similar to the second proposal mentioned above, with a team playing 30 games or 6 per opponent in each of two divisions, while playing 3 per opponent against 14 of the 15 remaining teams in 3 more divisions, 4 games would be played against that 15th team for the final 46 scheduled games. The divisions would rotate from year to year for this scheduling purpose.

There are several ways you could align if you wanted to really shake things up and you could take a page from hockey and name the divisions after famous baseball figures from the past if you wanted.

Ironically under the old system with a division of 4 and a division of 6, the Tigers could be in the last division here instead of the Phillies, who would join the other teams from the northeast. The Twins, Cubs, Brewers and White Sox would have their own division.

Option 2, another take on geography.

Division 1 would again be the teams from California.

Division 2, again the Diamondbacks, Rockies, and mariners, joined this time by the Rangers and Astros.

Division 3, Royals, Cardinals, Cubs, Twins, White Sox.

Division 4, Blue Jays, Tigers, Reds, Indians, Brewers.

Division 5, Red Sox, Mets, Yankees, Marlins, Rays.

Division 6, Phillies, Orioles, Nationals, Pirates, Braves.

Finally option 3, which takes more of a historic approach.

Division 1, the original AL teams that have not relocated, Indians, Tigers, White Sox, Yankees, and Red Sox.

Division 2, the NL original teams that have not relocated, Phillies, Pirates, Reds, Cubs, and Cardinals.

Division 3, current NL franchises which have relocated at least once in history, Nationals, Brewers, Braves, Giants, and Dodgers.

Division 4, Al franchises that have relocated plus Angels who joined modern Rangers in expansion, Angels, Rangers, Athletics, Twins, and Orioles.

Finally, an option where the number of divisions is reduced to five. Teams play 4 games against the 24 teams outside the division for 96 total, the remaining 66 games are played against 5 teams in the division, 13 against 4 teams and 14 against the 5th.

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